Underground and aboveground containments have been used in various applications, such as in the petroleum, nuclear, and laboratory industry. Those containments need to be monitored for leakage prior to or during usage. Systems for monitoring and detecting the location of leaks in underground storage tanks and pipelines have been described.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,577 describes a fluorinated halocarbon compound tracer with a boiling point less than that of gasoline. The tracer is slowly dispensed within the tank. A sampling pipe having a plurality of apertures is buried in selected locations in the vicinity of the tank, and samples of the soil gas are pumped from the pipe and supplied to a Nafion water separator. If a leak in the tank should occur, the tracer will exit with the leaking gasoline, quickly vaporize, and travel rapidly by molecular diffusion. Elements of the tracer will therefore be detected in the soil gas pumped from the sample pipe using standard gas chromatography techniques, indicating that a leak exists in the tank.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,725,551 describes mixing a tracer material such as a fluorinated halocarbon compound with fluids in underground storage tanks. Air drawn down into a vapor pipe passes through the storage tanks and into a sample collection pipe. Any tracer leaked from the tanks will be picked up and drawn into the sample collection pipe. The air in the sample pipe is tested for the presence of the tracer after water vapor is removed from the air sample.
Such prior art detectors typically employ gas chromatographic (GC) device with a chromatographic column and electron capture detector (ECD) equipment which include where chemical markers are injected into a pipe or storage tank and detected when the markers exit the tank as a leak. GC equipment is relatively slow, cumbersome and overelaborate to use. Therefore, there is a need for a method and system for leakage detection for aboveground and underground tanks and containments with improved detection speed and operation simplicity as compared to conventional detection apparatus employing GC methods.